iPhone 3GS/3.0 FW; Desperately Needs to be Restored, Help Much Appreciated

So I'm still using 3.0 on my launch-day 3GS. Long story short I'm pretty busy with travel and everytime I am home and want to upgrade and re-JB I find out Apple has JUST released a new FW and it's "not safe" to update yet, for JB sake anyway. Curiously enough, I'm home now and sit down to do it and the firstthi g I see on the Dev-Team blog is that 4.2.1 FW was just released, so it's literally EVERY SINGLE TIME lol.

Anyway, my issue is my phone performs like crap. It crashes constantly (either Safari or the actual FW, rebooting the phone into safe mode) at random times (multiple times a day), and eerytime I try to do updates from the App Store it also reboots into safe mode (automatically). It also takes FOREVER to boot back up now (this just started happening last week while I was on a business trip). It will turn itself off and just stay on the apple logo for a good few minutes, then just a black screen (but a LIT back screen, not like a locked black screen) for a few more, then it finally boots. So I NEED to do something about it. Plus most of the cool new apps/games are for at LEAST 3.1 or later so Im missing out on a bunch of good stuff.

I read that for OLDER 3GS phones it is safe to go to 4.2.1 and JB untethered, and since mine is a launch-day phone still on 3.0 FW I'm pretty sure it qualifies as "older" lol. So I'm just looking for step by step directions (or a link to such) on exactly how I go about the process of upgrading to 4.2.1 and jailbreaking it. Dev-Team's blog lists a few different methods, none of which I'm familiar with (I used PurpleRa1n RC2 to JB, couldn't have been simpler lol). I'm not tech/computer illiterate, so I don't need baby-step instructions, I'm just looking for clear instructions as the only JB method I've ever used was the PurpleRa1n one.

Specs:

3GS (launch day)
3.0 FW
PurpleRa1n RC2 JB
Windows XP PC
Not sure which iTunes version, but it's old, whatever one came out around the time the 3GS did because I ddnt use iTunes before that and haven't updated since (I remember awhile back this forum and the Dev Team were saying NOT to update iTunes for JB-sake).

Sorry for lengthy post, just trying to get all details out from the get-go so I can get the process started ASAP, phone is driving me nuts and becoming unusable. Thanks in advance for any help/info.

If no, install latest iTunes, update to 4.2.1 through iTunes and JB with latest version of Redsnow.

If yes, you need to update using a custom firmware (google), one tha keeps the very stable unlockable 4.26 baseband. Right now, custom firmware only goes to 4.1. To install them, you must use Redsnow to phone into DFU and restore with the custom file in iTunes. If you want 4.2.1, you will need to wait for them to come out.

And the JB has Backgrounding (multitasking) and I only have 1 email worth checking regularly so unified inbox doesn't matter to me, and IDK what threaded messaging is so I don't know what I'm "missing" there lol.

But seriously, I know I'm way behind. Like I said, seems like everytime I got time to sit down and redo the phone I was too late.

As far as 4.1, I'd need to upgrade to 4.1 to save those hashed correct? Hpw can I do that if 4.2 is out now?

Also, in terms of iPhone 4, how soon would I have to buy one to be able to JB it out of the box? Wondering if it's less of a hassle to just pick the 4 up and JB it instead of dealing with my 3GS anymore. The 3GS has some issues that I'm not even sure a restore/FW upgrade would solve. Like the mute button. When I flip it to silent it vibrates like crazy because it rapidly switches between normal and silent and it vibrates to warn you that, so since it goes back and forth it just vibrates a bunch. It's like the switch is loose cuz it only doesn't it when you move the phone (like walking with it in your pocket for example), but the actual physical switch isn't lose, so IDK.

<facepalm>
You do not need 4.1 to get the SHSH blobs for 4.1. The blob you get has nothing to do with what iOS you're running. For example, if you started getting blobs now, you can only get what Apple is signing for. If Apple is only signing for 4.2, that's the only blob you'll get.
Personally, I'm more surprised you've been jb for this long and never bothered with blobs.
Get tiny umbrella and start getting your blobs. With these blobs, your bad sense of timing won't matter anymore.

The Tiny Umbrella thing is what always had me confused. Well, not Tiny Umbrella itself, but I always just saw the thing in Cydia asking if I wanted to save them but I never clicked yes just because I was on 3.0 and it was always for FWs after that, so I didn't think I could do it. That's part of the reason I've beenstuck on 3.0 so long lol. I had all those ECID and iBEC/iBSS (or whatever the letters are) files extracted and saved when I first got my phone as instructed by the Dev-Team and this forum, but as far as the blobs stuff, I was way late to the party on those and though I was always too late lol. Thanks for all the info everyone, been a big help in clarifying things up.

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